FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Jordan Expresses Interest in NuScale’s Small Modular Reactors
Jan. 16, 2019 (EIRNS)—NuScale Power announced today that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC), to evaluate NuScale’s small module reactor (SMR) nuclear power plant for use in Jordan. JAEC is the government entity leading the development and implementation of nuclear strategy and managing the nuclear program in Jordan. Through this MOU, NuScale and JAEC will collaborate on conducting a joint feasibility evaluation of NuScale’s SMR, which will inform JAEC’s decision on moving forward with the project as part of Jordan’s planned deployment of nuclear power plants, Business Wire reported.
“NuScale is at the forefront of U.S. SMR technology,” said Khaled Toukan, chairman of JAEC. “We look forward to this collaboration to assess the viability and potential for deployment of NuScale SMR technology in Jordan.”
NuScale’s self-contained SMR design houses the reactor core, pressurizer and steam generator inside a single containment vessel. A single module can generate 50 MWe (gross) of electricity. It is quite compact, at just under 25 meters in length, 4.6 meters in diameter and weighing 450 tons, the company says. A power plant could include up to 12 modules to produce as much as 720 MWe (gross), World Nuclear News reported. (See EIR, “Mass Production of Modular Nuclear Reactors To Industrialize Developing Countries Until Fusion Power Comes Online,” Nov. 16, 2018.)
NuScale’s SMR is undergoing design certification review by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the first, and, so far, only SMR to do so. The NRC completed the first phase of its review in April last year, and the regulator is scheduled to complete its safety evaluation report in August 2020.
Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems plans the development of a 12-module demonstration NuScale plant at a site at the Idaho National Laboratory, with operation expected by 2027. The U.S. Department of Energy in December signed an MOU on the use of power from 2 of the 12 modules, World Nuclear News reported.
